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World premiereA Traverse Theatre Company and Stephen Joseph Theatre co-production

Why would anyone want to get closer to nature? What’s that about? It’s cruel. Vindictive. Nature will give you cancer, burn your house down then send a flood to wash away your family.

Love. Hate. Good. Evil. Nature. Nurture.

Mag lives in a rustic cabin in the Canadian wilds, far from neighbours and further from her past. But when her estranged daughter Beth turns up on the doorstep having been freshly released from prison, the past becomes terrifyingly present. And it has teeth.

Beth came to ask Mag a question. But is she prepared for the answer? Can they really settle their scores? And can Mag keep an innocent party from being destroyed in the crossfire?

As a blizzard closes in and dangerous words are traded, Mag accepts a challenge from a most unexpected source and lights a fuse that looks set to blow both women sky high.

Written by Oliver Emanuel (The 306 Trilogy) and directed by the Traverse’s Gareth Nicholls (Ulster American), The Monstrous Heart is thrilling, chilling and witty, examining afresh the eternal question of whether we ever really change how we’re made.

Is it possible to kill our old selves and create someone new and better in their place?